326 HUMANISM xvn 



selves. Myers s churchwarden, who has already been 

 quoted, may have reached an unsurpassable pinnacle of 

 impeccable orthodoxy, but as an illustration of celestial 

 attraction he is a failure. Similarly, when I expressed 

 these opinions concerning the attractiveness of the notion 

 of Heaven in the Spectator^ I elicited no contradiction, 

 but only a number of anecdotes bearing out my conten 

 tion. As for Hell, I never met but one man who 

 professed to believe that he himself was destined to 

 eternal damnation, but as he made this avowal with a 

 smiling countenance, and without the least effort to alter 

 his ways, his testimony must be received with caution. 

 In view of this disappointing situation (for surely the fear 

 of Hell, at least, was among the more effective, if also 

 among the cruder, of the argumentative incentives to 

 virtue), it might be well if the churches admitted some 

 what greater latitude into their myths of the future life 

 (if myths are all we are to be allowed to have) ; both 

 the thought of spirit -communication and that of re 

 incarnation appear to possess powers of consolation (in 

 certain moods) that might advantageously be utilized. 



It seems probable, therefore, that so far from modifying 

 the impression produced by men s manifest indifference to 

 and dislike for any scientific investigation of the question 

 of their immortality, their attitude towards the religious 

 doctrines only confirms our conclusions. The religious 

 dogmas are accepted because they are what men desire, 

 and so far as they are this : they yield a vague, remote 

 guarantee against annihilation, which may be summoned 

 up or dismissed at pleasure, and does not involve any 

 immediate practical consequences. What is also very 

 convenient, this policy enables men to avoid a scientific 

 decision of the question and to give to every attempt 

 thereat an air of religious impropriety : thus there is 

 avoided all occasion for any practical readjustment, any 

 rearrangement of life, which grows progressively more 

 irksome and difficult as age advances. But inasmuch as 

 influence increases with age, and our great authorities 



1 November 24, 1900. 



